BelTA recalls Lukashenko’s first inauguration in 1994

Today marks the anniversary of the first inauguration of the president of Belarus: on 20 July 1994 Aleksandr Lukashenko was sworn in as Belarus’ head of state in the Oval Hall of the Government House, BelTA has learned.

Six people ran for president in 1994. Aleksandr Lukashenko polled 44.82% of the votes in the first round and 80.3% in the run-off election.

“People have made their choice. The ball is in your court, head of state!” - read the subheading of the country’s main newspaper, Sovetskaya Belorussiya, after the election. And the president, as history shows, made this move, fulfilling his main promise to voters - to take the country away from the abyss.

Contemporaries said that people had high hopes for this election. Belarusians wanted stability and confidence in the future. But neither the old party elite who was in power at that time, nor the nationalist forces that rose to prominence after the collapse of the Soviet Union were able to address people’s needs and expectations concerning justice and quality of life. The previous government did not have an effective economic strategy, and several economic programs that they tried to implement failed. Poverty, hyperinflation and shortages of goods, rampant corruption, gang violance and racketeering - all this required immediate and decisive action.

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